Console development is often lambasted by those who champion new ideas. ‘Innovation on consoles’ is dead they say, as they scoff at the latest Resident Evil 6 and Halo 4 reviews. Those numbers are getting pretty high aren’t they?

Call of Duty: Black Ops is the 9th core entry to Activision’s juggernaut franchise. Now that’s a high number indeed. You’re right though, you’ve always been right: it looks just like every other game in the series. What has console gaming become if not a grease-stained production line manned by staff too afraid to dream a little bigger?

Compare it to the indie and PC market with its new IP and bright ideas. It’s an unspoiled paradise of innovation and imagination. If only the console market could get to that magical promised land. Unfortunately it’s become too big to fit through the gate.

“Black Ops 2 is confidently the biggest attempt to change the multiplayer template since the original Modern Warfare. But these changes don’t necessarily make it better as a whole.”

Console developers often peer through the shiny gold bars of this lush heaven, staring on in envy as Gabe Newell lounges by the pool feeding grapes to Notch. Somewhere within the utopia, Team Meat are riding their unicorns through a forest made of entirely dreams.

Luminaries like Jonathan Blow walk a hedge maze lined with paper money. They don’t need it after all, they’re not in this industry to win it. It’s an market founded on free ideas, not a yearly shooter series that doesn’t change much with each instalment. This is what gaming should be about shouldn’t it?

Well no, that’s not how the world works actually. Granted, few publishers know about the cyclical release ethos better than Activision, a powerhouse of long-standing, corrosive franchises such as Guitar Hero and Tony Hawk.

But Call of Duty – for everyone’s bitching and moaning about it – has yet to see that same decline. Its DNA is so ingrained into the popular subconscious, its long-standing mechanics and traits burned into the minds of its fans for Activision to ever allow significant slack on the leash.

But why should they? The series has never been healthier in terms of raw sales, and regardless of complaints focused on how similar it looks on the screen to its predecessors, Black Ops 2 is confidently the biggest attempt to change the multiplayer template since the original Modern Warfare. But these changes don’t necessarily make it better as a whole.

You do have to sit down and play it to get past the visuals however, and only then will you begin to appreciate Treyarch’s effort. I’ve often said on these pages that new IP is a wonderful thing, and even I can admit that Black Ops 2′s multiplayer is not perfect. But to change it too much would be suicidal, that much is clear.

The Call of Duty series sells so well because it’s superb at what it does, not because we’re all closed-minded gamers with no desire to explore new avenues. It’s an effective showcase of twitch gunplay and deafening spectacle. If you’re not a fan of it, then that’s perfectly fine.

That core gameplay remains in Black Ops 2, but while the action around players has slowed considerably when compared to Modern Warfare 3′s unfettered madness, there is a renewed emphasis on fast, pure gun vs gun gameplay that revolves around balance.

“The measure of your skill isn’t just in how good your kill-death ratio is, gauged instead by the overall contribution to your team’s final score, and this is another area where Treyarch has really thought about what Call of Duty was lacking.”

Newcomers and regulars will have a tough time adjusting to Treyarch’s new hit detection mechanic. Players take less shots to go down then ever before, and body placement is more important than ever. Shoot an opponent below the waist in a stand-off and you’re already dead. Precision is vital now, and that’s something anyone who has felt cheated by Call of Duty games in the past will surely appreciate.

This revised damage model works on most counts but it still feels like it needs further iteration, as inconsistent damage and questionable deaths begin to return. Knife lunge has also been reduced significantly but panic knifing remains an issue.

It does mean that the amount of bogus knife deaths per game has gone down, but the mechanic seems to stumble even when you’re toe to toe with players, as your point-blank swipe fails to register.

Still, arguably the biggest change to the series’ selection box of staples is the overhauled create-a-class system. Birthed at Treyarch from a paper board game called ‘Pick 10′, the system gives you ten points to spend on any gear you want.

Everything costs one point, from guns and attachments, to lethal devices and perks. It’s amazing how quickly your allowance runs dry when trying to replicate your favourite classes from previous Call of Duty instalments. That mindset doesn’t fly here any more, and while the model reduces unbalance it often feels curbing.

It has been meticulously geared towards keeping everyone on a relatively level playing field. Sure you might have a player with four perks, but he or she will have to sacrifice grenades or their secondary weapon for the pleasure.

The system marks the death of the overpowered ‘win-all’ class, and it’s the best move Treyarch could have made. However, Wildcards bend the rules at the cost of a point and allow you to carry one extra perk, grenade or tactical device, among others.

Score Streaks are the next big change and these do away with killstreak rewards altogether. Now the measure of your skill isn’t just in how good your kill-death ratio is, gauged instead by the overall contribution to your team’s final score, and this is another area where Treyarch has really thought about what Call of Duty was lacking.

You will have a really hard time earning Score Streak rewards by just killing people. Chances are you’ll occasionally get your lowest tiered option – such as a UAV or Hunter Killer drone, but heavy hitters like the AGR robotic turret or the Lightning Strike bombing run will require cooperation to reach.

“Score Streak rewards have also been well-planned to remove avenues for air supremacy. Nightmares of Modern Warfare 2 rounds spent huddled indoors away from the watchful cannons of an AC-130 are a thing of the past.”

Obviously objective-based game types are a better way of boosting your Score Streak given their teamwork nature, and as such Team Deathmatch rarely sees an abundance of active score rewards.

New mode Hard Point is perfect for teamwork – which is based on King of the Hill rules – as you receive bonus score for getting multi-kills, defending objectives and using your tool-set wisely. Chaining these factors is the key to earning quick rewards, and racking up high scores is certainly gratifying.

The low score rewards for vanilla kills dulls the desire to go on lone wolf missions around each of the 14 maps,instead fuelling cooperation. Solo play and kill-grinding will likely continue, but the means are here to get people working together more efficiently.

Score Streak rewards have also been well-planned to remove avenues for air supremacy. Nightmares of Modern Warfare 2 rounds spent huddled indoors away from the watchful cannons of an AC-130 are a thing of the past, and instead you have a manner of robotic threats to contend with.

Many of these rewards have secondary functions, such as detonating a Hellstorm Missile mid-flight to create a cluster bomb affect over a wide area, or taking over from the AI and controlling your AGR, Dragonfire or Sentry Gun manually. The added layer of control is certainly welcome.

Perks have also been down-tuned to offer mild buffs such as Lightweight’s faster movement and Blind Eye’s protection against air support. The polarising Ghost perk is now unlocked at level 55, which is the last rank. It now only hides players off the radar when they are moving, exposing campers at all times. It shows that Treyarch has been listening to fans.

Instead, gun upgrades acquired through skill make more of a difference, such as stabilising fore grip, select fire modules, FMJ rounds and an MMS scope that paints enemies through walls.

The weapon themselves are relatively equal in power, and there are little surprises, except the first three-round burst rifle – the SWAT-556 feels like another Type-95 at first – but then you soon realise that it’s not as powerful as it first feels, just more stable.

There are subtle handling differences here and there that will help you decide which is the firearm for you, but if you’ve played Call of Duty before you will pretty much know what to expect. The only big change is the select fire attachment that lets you switch between single shot and automatic discharge.

“Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 offers – at a mechanic level – the best multiplayer experience the series has delivered. It’s an actual test of skill, not killstreak chaining, manipulative load-out mixing or anything that might seem a tad unscrupulous to players.”

Good tools are nothing without fun maps however, and while the original Black Ops maps – as garish as they seem now – had character, the same cannot be said for all of the new locales. There is a clinical vibe running throughout these arenas, as robotic as the drones and robots running around them.

There are a few stand-out maps however, such as the circular bullet train station Express, which occasionally sees a high speed shuttle barrel round the track, hammering any people or devices in its path.

Raid is a sore point, as its open areas and blind spots make every manoeuvre potentially suicidal. This map is an example of the anti-camping ethos run amok. Metldown on the other hand is a campers paradise, giving players plenty of cover to hunker down behind and slaughter you with ease as you pass.

It’s a mixed bunch, but it frankly shits all over Modern Warfare 3′s selection. Some maps are the usual facilities that you’re probably bored of by now, but the moving robot factory in Drone, the shifting freight containers of Cargo, and the futuristic cruise ship of Hijacked feel fresh and expertly designed.

Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 offers – at a mechanic level – the best multiplayer experience the series has delivered. It’s an actual test of skill, not killstreak chaining, manipulative load-out mixing or anything that might seem a tad unscrupulous to players. But the game will likely receive the usual torrent of flack from sceptics.

Treyarch has shown that it has the development chops to take a slight gamble with its latest multiplayer, just as FIFA 13 took a gamble with its expanded trick system and First Touch engine. That’s what Call of Duty is after all, a yearly sports game, but with big fuck-off guns instead of a football.

As such Treyarch deserves praise for looking at many of the areas fans took umbrage with, actually listening, then tweaking and rebalancing them for the greater good. The life and soul of the party may have diminished slightly, and some areas may still exist to infuriate, but there is still plenty of fun to be had for now.

Disclosure:

This review was written using a retail copy of Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 bought by Dave himself at £44.99 and reviewed at home. VG247 did not attend the game’s official review event..

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On accuracy it’s not BF3 as there’s no bullet drop or real delay, but yeah accuracy is important to dropping people quickly. Chances are when you start you’ll die a lot. The old tricks won’t work as well in this one. It’s harder.

Why would changing the multiplayer completely be suicide when thats exactly what IW did in the first Modern Warfare?

My history with CoD is a little bit of a love/hate relationship. CoD 2 in particular was fantastic and it still is in some respects so much so that its a much better WW2 shooter than World at War. CoD 3 was terrible in all respects. Modern Warfare still has the best campaign of the entire series. World at War was another mis-tread and was pretty offensive. MW2 was laughable and felt like it was created by two different teams within Infinity Ward, one making the ugly open American levels the other working on the more focused enjoyable SAS parts. Blops was my last meeting with the series and it again depressed the shit out of me, it became not really all that much of a game anymore.

All the bravado and stacking up and monster closets just fell away to be revealed as the game mechanics that they are. It became a series of inputs as a slowly wandered behind my pack of AI allies and let them kill everything for me. Left Trigger Right Trigger rinse repeat.

As it stands right now I have no real interest in the series what so ever, I would say I was a fan right up until MW2 and wanted to give it a chance to win me over again.

I can kinda understand its continuing appeal to most of the people that buy it, its like football at this stage. A male soap opera you can use to make small talk with people.

For what i did read i think i will give it a shot, i wasn´t that good in MW2 and MW3, my ratio was 0.68 aprox., but seeing that there is some key changes and because of those i might get the chance to being better at the game i will get it just to see is the COD for my style, thanks dave your review made one more copy sold for this game, thanks again.

Seriously who makes these maps? I sold mw3 a week after having the game because the maps were small and im going to have to do the same thing with black ops 2, whoever is designing these horrible maps needs to play mw2

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PlayStation users in Europe will soon have its own a PSN Service Status Indicator. It was released earlier this month in North America. The indicator makes it easier to check whether PlayStation services are down or running as planned. This includes account management, PlayStation Now, the store, social services, etc. Sony told Eurogamer the service […]

Bioware is unable to discuss when the Jaws of Hakkon DLC for Dragon Age: Inquisition will arrive on platforms other than PC and Xbox One. According to various tweets from executive producer Mark Darrah, due to the exclusivity contract between EA and Microsoft, the studio is unable to announce a release date for PlayStation 3 […]

Square Enix offering another mystery bundle to customers in the UK, which comes with five mystery PC games for £3.99. As before, customers will be unaware of the games they are purchasing in the mystery bundle, but the bundle contains triple-A titles worth £40 combined. One of Square’s previous mystery bundles contained Tomb Raider, Just […]

Shadow Tower, the first-person action-RPG developed for the original PlayStation by From Software, will be released on PlayStation Network. In the 1998 title, players took on the role of a mercenary who has returned home to the Holy Land of Zeptar to find the place has been sucked into the Underworld. He must use the […]

PlayStation TV has received a price cut in the UK. After several retailers started offering the console for less than the RRP of £84.99, users on DealSpwn began to wonder whether this is an official price cut, and not just regular deals or stock clearance. Sony later confirmed the new price of £44.99. “Starting from […]

You can download Forza Horizon 2 expansion Fast & Furious starting right now. Forza Horizon 2 Presents Fast & Furious is available to download now through Xbox Live for Xbox One and Xbox 360. The expansion is standalone, so you don’t need to own Forza Horizon 2 to play it. It’s also free from now […]

The 20th DLC for PayDay 2, the Butcher’s BBQ Pack, is now available on Steam. The DLC will run you $4.99/€4.99 and features: Piglet Grenade Launcher, 12G Steakout Shotgun and Mk1 Flamethrower Molotov cocktails and incendiary ammo Four new masks, patterns, materials and achievements The Butcher’s BBQ Pack is another co-development between Overkill and Croatian […]

Amid the current turmoil between Hideo Kojima and publisher Konami, one studio has offered the legendary designer a position. Lords of the Fallen developer Deck 13 took to Twitter to extend a job offer to Hideo Kojima. Dear Mr. @HIDEO_KOJIMA_EN In case you are currently searching, we have an open position as Head of Game […]

The question on every Destiny player’s lips today. And the answer, supplied by resident Destiny expert Paul Davies, is… Yes! We asked Paul whether or not he thought Xur’s Exotic weapon this week was worth the 23 Strange Coins. Here’s what he said: “It was already a great gun to own for PVP owing to […]

According to Final Fantasy 15 director Hajime Tabata, the main cast of the game is all-male because it makes the game “more approachable.” Final Fantasy 15 director Hajime Tabata spoke to Gamespot about the reason for his choice of making the core cast an all-male affair. “Speaking honestly, an all-male party feels almost more approachable […]

Blizzard has given Hearthstone expansion Blackrock Mountain a solid release date. Hearthstone’s Blackrock Mountain adventure pack will be released April 2 in the Americas region, and April 3 in Europe, Korea, Taiwan, and China. Blackrock Depths is the first wing to be released, others will follow one week apart. Other than the 31 new cards, […]

If you’re having issues loading your Bloodborne save after applying firmware update 2.50 to your PS4, this should help you out. Reddit user KBALLZZ encountered an issue after installing update 2.50 on his PlayStation 4. Bloodborne started reinstalling the day one patch again and when it was done he couldn’t continue his game or load […]

Sony is offering a 10% discount coupon to anyone looking to buy games on PlayStation Store this weekend. Sony’s latest discount coupon code is here. You’ll receive 10% off your cart total when buying from the PSN Store. The offer is not valid on purchases made on PS Vita, PlayStation TV, PSP, or in-game stores. […]

Dark Souls 2: Scholar of the First Sin will offer returning customers a chance to upgrade at a discounted price. Those who already own Dark Souls 2 on Steam and are interested in picking up the Scholar of the First Sin edition will be happy to know that publisher Bandai Namco is offering them an […]

Insight is one of the currencies in Bloodborne, but it’s also a mechanic that affects the gameplay. There are MASSIVE SPOILERS below, so turn back now or one of Bloodborne’s gameplay mechanics will be SPOILED for you. Just like Blood Echoes in Bloodborne, Insight is used to purchase certain items from vendors in the game. […]

The second phase of the April update for Xbox One is now open to members of the Preview programme and and it looks like there are even more features in store. Phase one of Xbox One’s April firmware update started a few days ago with improvements to party chat and achievements notifications. Today, phase two […]

As of patch 1.8 for GTA 5 on PlayStation 4 and Xbox One, a few graphical issues have cropped up leading some to believe there has been a stealth downgrade to the game’s overall graphics. Over the past couple of days, Reddit went nuts over a video showing what appears to be a downgrade to […]

Xur: Agent of the Nine has arrived at The Tower in Destiny to rid you of your Strange Coins. Xur: Agent of the Nine has once again made it to Destiny’s Tower to sell you Exotic weapons and gear in exchange for Strange Coins and Motes of Light. For this weekend, Xur can be found […]

Destiny is finally getting the vault space upgrade players have been begging for almost since launch week. Destiny players can currently use vault space to store 20 pieces of amour, 20 weapons and 20 general item stacks. In the latest Bungle Weekly Update, the developer revealed that as of patch 1.1.2, due before House of […]

Half-Life 2: Update will be available tomorrow, and thanks to the modding community, those who own the vanilla version of the game can apply a visual update to the 2004 title. The comparison video shows you the differences between the original version, and the version with Half-Life 2: Update applied. Here’s what the mod includes: […]

You can now pre-download the free-to-play Neverwinter MMO on Xbox One. The game launches on March 31, but you will still need an Xbox Live Gold account to play it. Based on the Dungeons & Dragons franchise, the game can be downloaded from the Xbox Store.

Sony will be ending service for Destiny of Spirits starting next month, Sony has announced. The free-to-play Destiny of Spirits was released in late March 2014 on Vita, and tasked players with collecting supernatural forces appropriate to their geographical location, and then trading them with others online. Gravity Rush spirits were added to the game […]

MotoGP 15 will be released in June on PC, PlayStation 3, PS4, Xbox 360 and Xbox One, Milestone has announced. Bike, rider and team customization are part of the latest release in the franchise, along with time-trials and enhanced career options. The game features over 20 bike models divided into three classes: MotoGP, Moto 2 […]

Nakatomi Plaza and Wayne Enterprises can now be yours in Cities: Skylines. Die Hard fans will be familiar with Nakatomi Plaza. Those who have never watched the first film and live in Los Angeles know it by its real-life name, FOX Plaza. It was created by Enos Shenk and is available through Steamworks. Those who […]

With the Call of Duty Championship kicking off tomorrow, Activision has sent over a series infographic full of interesting figures such as the number of copies sold over 10 years and how many grenades players have tossed. According to the stats below, the Call of Duty franchise has sold 175 million copies across all platforms […]